...to the issue and the auspices of this day, I sbrink from the contemplation, and humble myself hefore the magnitude of the undertaking. Utterly, indeed,...should I despair, did not the presence of many, whom I see here, remind me, that, in the other high authorities provided by our constitution, I shall find...

...honor, the happiness, and the hopes of this beloved country committed to the issue and the auspices of this day, I shrink from the contemplation, and...humble myself before the magnitude of the undertaking. First Inaugural Address, Mar. 4, 1801 All, too, will bear in mind this sacred principle, that though...

...honor, the happiness, and the hopes of this beloved country committed to the issue and the auspices of this day, I shrink from the contemplation, and...humble myself before the magnitude of the undertaking. We contemplate this rapid growth, and the prospect it holds up to us, not with a view to the injuries...

...honour, the happiness and the hopes of this beloved country committed to the issue and the auspices of this day, I shrink from the contemplation, and...humble myself before the magnitude of the undertaking. During the contest of opinion through which we have passed, the animation of discussions and of exertions...

...Although Jefferson's first uses wallow a bit in the stock humility of entering upon high office ("1 shrink from the contemplation, and humble myself before the magnitude of the undertaking"), he raises the convention only to make more of it. The Jefferson who worries about incapacity at the...